Two Steps Every Researcher Should Take

Every time I hear a story about a researcher spending money to travel to a National Archives facility only to find out the records they seek aren’t at that location, are unavailable for research, or that the reference staff are unable to assist the research in the short travel window they have available, I cringe. … Continue reading Two Steps Every Researcher Should Take

Get More from Archives.gov with our New Search

Today’s post is the third (and last) in a series about recent enhancements to NARA’s flagship website, Archives.gov. On average, about 180,000 queries are entered into the search box on Archives.gov each month. Roughly 8-10% of those queries originate on our homepage. What these statistics tell us is that search is a critical pathway for … Continue reading Get More from Archives.gov with our New Search

President's Day at the National Archives

Guest blogger Elizabeth Lieutenant, a Master’s student in Library and Information Science at The Catholic University of America, is a virtual intern in the Office of Innovation. This week we celebrated President’s Day, a U.S. federal holiday that officially honors George Washington’s birthday. While the holiday may be for George, we at the National Archives … Continue reading President's Day at the National Archives

Archival Research Catalog is Retiring on August 15th

After 10 years of providing online access to the National Archives’ holdings the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) is permanently retiring on August 15th. You can still search descriptions and digital content using our Online Public Access search http://www.archives.gov/research/search/ Online Public Access contains all of the descriptions and digitized content that was in ARC.  Online Public … Continue reading Archival Research Catalog is Retiring on August 15th

Online Public Access catalog down for maintenance May 10-25, 2013

The National Archives’ Online Public Access (OPA) system will be down for maintenance from May 10 to May 25, 2013. We are in the process of rolling out a new version of OPA that will bring the catalog up to date. After the updated system is rolled out, the catalog will be updated on a … Continue reading Online Public Access catalog down for maintenance May 10-25, 2013

New Documerica set on Flickr

In honor of Earth Day, we have added a great new set of photographs from the Documerica collection to Flickr.  Boyd Norton, a photographer who is still greatly involved with nature photography, took photos of the National Parks in the southwest, and documented solar energy projects in Arizona and strip mining in Montana as a … Continue reading New Documerica set on Flickr

Document Your Environment Contest Winners!

Back in November, the National Archives, with the help of the Environmental Protection Agency, launched a new contest that asked students to create something inspired by one of our Documerica photos.  This contest, Document Your Environment, brought in so many creative interpretations of the original 1970s photos!  From videos to paintings and Photoshop creations to … Continue reading Document Your Environment Contest Winners!

Searching 40 TB of Electronic Records with the Swipe of a Finger

Imagine that you want to find electronic records related to a particular geographic location in a very large collection (40 TB and about 70 million files) of archival electronic records. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could pick up an iPad, have a map pop up on the screen, run your finger over the area … Continue reading Searching 40 TB of Electronic Records with the Swipe of a Finger

Document Your Environment: Get Involved with Our Newest Student Contest!

Students, do you ever look at the environment around you, and wonder about what it used to look like or what it will look like in the next few decades?  Are you interested in doing something constructive to help raise awareness for environmental issues?  Then we have the perfect contest for you!  The National Archives … Continue reading Document Your Environment: Get Involved with Our Newest Student Contest!

Connect with Us on iTunes U

The National Archives just joined iTunes U, a dedicated area within the iTunes Store giving users public access to thousands of free lectures, videos, books and podcasts from learning institutions all over the world.  If you already have iTunes on your iPhone, iPad, iPod, or computer, you can search for "National Archives" on iTunes U to … Continue reading Connect with Us on iTunes U